The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) An announced a improvement of two tenths in its regional growth projection For this year, raising its estimate to 2.2%despite the impact of war commercial.
“Latin America and the Caribbean crosses in 2025 a new phase of economic slowdown. After a rebound in the first quarters of 2024, the growth of regional GDP lost dynamism towards the end of that year, and it is expected that it will be moderate of 2.3% recorded in 2024 to 2.2% in 2025”said the United Nations agency based in Santiago.
According to him Economic Study of Latin America and the Caribbean 2025this evolution reflects A decade of low growthwith average GDP expansion of barely 1.2% between 2016 and 2025even below the eighties levels.
This is the Second review made of ECLAC From the beginning of the commercial war promoted by the US President Donald Trumpwhich also affected Latin American countries.
By 2026, ECLAC projects that the region will grow 23%.
Argentina and Panama lead economic growth in 2025
The countries with the highest projected expansion for this year are:
- Argentina (5%)
- Panama (4.2%)
- Paraguay (4%)
- Dominican Republic (3.7%)
- Guatemala (3.6%)
- Costa Rica (3.5%)
In one intermediate position They are located:
- Honduras (3.2%)
- Nicaragua and Peru (3.1% each)
- Uruguay (2.8%)
- Colombia (2.5%)
- Chile and El Salvador (2.4%)
- Brazil (2.3%)
- Venezuela (2%)
In the Lower part of the rankingalthough still with positive growth:
- Caribbean islands (1.8%) (except Guyana)
- Bolivia and Ecuador (1.5% each)
- Mexico (0.3%)
Cuba (-1.5%) and Haiti (-2.3%) They are the only countries with negative projections For this year.
“Economic performance will continue to be conditioned by the weakness of external demand, restrictive financial conditions and fragility derived from internal factors such as less dynamism of consumption, low investment, high labor informality and persistent structural inequalities,”explained ECLAC.
The organization also warned that the stage for 2025 and 2026 “It is subject to high uncertainty. The dynamics of growth of economies in the region could deteriorate because of an increase in global risks.”.
Despite the difficulties, Latin America closed both 2023 and 2024 with 2.3% growthshowing true resilience Economic in the midst of international challenges.
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